On March 31, 2025, NYSEIA submitted comments in response to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's draft General Permit (GP) for Community-Scale Solar Energy Installations.

The DEC issued the draft GP in February, shortly after the agency's jurisdiction was greatly expanded to include unmapped wetlands and certain smaller wetlands that were not previously regulated. The DEC's jurisdictional expansion without clear guidelines for solar created a lot of uncertainty for community solar development, and the draft GP is an important step to address the new permitting risk.

NYSEIA's comments thank the DEC for issuing a draft General Permit to provide guidelines for solar energy development on and near DEC jurisdictional wetlands. NYSEIA's comments seek several clarifications and propose modifications to ensure that the DEC's regulations do not prevent continued community solar development in New York. If NYSEIA's recommendations are adopted, it will ensure that New York strikes a good balance between legislative mandates regarding both ecological preservation and climate mitigation through clean energy deployment.